Fitness Friday: Improving My 5K Race Time

Although my fitness posts may have fallen a little bit off the radar in 2016, I still managed to stay really consistent with my exercise. In 2016, I ran two half marathons and four other races ranging from 5 kilometers to 5 miles. And while I did okay with these races (except for that terrible Iceland half marathon – that was just BAD), I never really improved upon my race pace. It’s been a dream of mine for a while to get better and faster at my races, but when it comes down to it, I’m more than willing to put the hours in to running on a regular schedule, but I generally don’t want to put the effort in that is required to get faster. (Because let’s face it – getting faster usually involves doing something like sprints and those are pretty nauseating.) I can usually do it for a handful of weeks, then I fall completely off the rails.

Almost there!
Almost there!

Anyway, where’s this going? One of my favourite races is coming up in the middle of March – the Achilles St. Patrick’s Day 5K race. I put out my personal best time on this race back in 2015 and I’d really like to beat that. Ideally, I’d like to get under 25 minutes, but for now I’ll settle with under 26:10 which was my previous PR. Considering I barely squeaked in one race under the 27 minute mark in 2016, I’ve got a lot of work to do, and I’ve only got three two months to do it (shit, I literally thought I had three months, but nope)! This may seem like short notice, but I like it for a number of reasons:

  1. It gives me a concrete deadline. The race is March 12th – which means I need to get my butt in gear immediately.
  2. I’m better at accomplishing things with a relatively short timeline and under high stress. This is because I have zero opportunity to push it off till “later”.
  3. I frigging love St. Patrick’s Day and want to do well in a race I already have immense fun doing.

So, where to start? I have always used the Hal Higdon training programs for running. This time I’m going to be following the 5K Intermediate Plan which is intended to make you faster. Having done Hal’s programs in the past, I know that I usually need more time than what’s allotted (just in case something happens like injury or laziness). This 5K program is an 8 week one, which is great because (as of typing this) I have 9.5 weeks until the race.

Although I won’t be able to complete all of the runs on a weekly basis in the race chart found in Hal Higdon’s plan, my goal is to complete the difficult ones (like tempo runs, long runs and the horrific sprint/recovery/sprint runs). I’m opting for this because I do not want to give up weightlifting and I still play soccer every week which is a lot of exercise to shoulder on top of everything else in my life.

I’m excited to get this going because the timeline is really contained. I’ll try to do an update here and there on how I’m doing and I’ll definitely be posting a race recap after the 5K to see just how well this training schedule worked out. Wish me luck!

14 thoughts on “Fitness Friday: Improving My 5K Race Time

  1. I don’t know much about running other than it gives me shin splints and hurts my knees, but I’ve never trained for a marathon so doing appropriate training would probably help. Playing ultimate has never bothered me though.
    I find I do better under pressure as well, it keeps me more focused cause there’s no time to waste.
    Love those black and green pants!
    And good luck, you can do it!! 🙂
    Chantal recently posted…DanceBody@HomeMy Profile

    1. I find it so strange that Ultimate doesn’t give you knee pain but running does! I always struggled with the abrupt turns in frisbee! Got used to it eventually, but daaaaang.

  2. Good luck!!! I have not put effort into getting faster or actually into running at all for most of this year, but I might go back to it more in 2017. I think I like the idea of running more than I actually like running and with my bad feet I’m not really willing to do it more than once or twice a week. And not in this weather! Good luck with your training and I hope you beat your PR!
    Zoe recently posted…2017 ResolutionsMy Profile

  3. Girl you’re amazing! I wanted to ask you where you got those pants in the second photo (the blue-green ones), they look dope. I *just* learned how to a deadlift properly and it’s a game changer, but I’m nowhere near your 130 lift! Someday!

    1. Awesome work on the deadlifting! It’s so rewarding when you go up in weight on the bar!
      My pants are by Adidas, but they’re a couple years old now. I picked mine up in Prague, but I think I saw them in North America as well.

  4. You go girl. I personally hate running now though I was a track and field girl in my youth. I love walking…slowly and listening to my favorite tunes..lol. Good Luck Chelle.

    1. Thanks Christina! Any reason you fell out of favour with track and field events? And hey, nothing wrong with walking – it’s definitely my preferred method of commuting!

  5. Great post! I love seeing fitness posts I can relate to. You are already so speedy to me, but I think having a goal to get a bit faster is awesome. You can do this! Your tights in the race photo are AMAZING!! love the colours.
    Amelia recently posted…hello, is this thing on?My Profile

    1. I love bright tights! I do wear black a lot, but the vibrant ones are just so much fun!
      I really hope this program works out for me cuz I’m not really willing to do a heck of a lot more to speed up. haha

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